Advanced Pronouns: y, en and More

(Higher tier) The pronouns y and en, stacked pronoun order, and the relative où are Higher-tier content in AQA GCSE French (8652). Foundation students use the basic object pronouns (me, te, le, la, lui) and can skip this lesson.

You already know the direct object pronouns (me, te, le, la, les) and indirect object pronouns (lui, leur). This lesson adds the two special pronouns Higher students need — y and en — plus how to line pronouns up when more than one appears. All of them share the same rule you already know: object pronouns go directly before the verb.

• J'y vais. — I'm going there.
• J'en ai trois. — I have three of them.

y replaces à + a place or a thing. It usually means "there" (for a place) or "to it / about it" (for a thing after a verb that takes à).

Full sentence	With y	English
Je vais à Paris.	J'y vais.	I go there.
Il habite en France.	Il y habite.	He lives there.
Je pense à mon examen.	J'y pense.	I think about it.
Elle répond à la question.	Elle y répond.	She answers it.

Like every object pronoun, y goes before the verb. In the near future it sits before the infinitive: Je vais y aller (I'm going to go there). In the negative it stays there: Je n'y vais pas (I'm not going there).

Use y only for things and places, never people. "I think about her" is Je pense à elle (emphatic pronoun), not J'y pense.

en replaces de + a thing, a partitive (du / de la / des = some), or a quantity. It means "some", "of it", "of them" — and English often drops it, which is why students forget it.

Full sentence	With en	English
Tu as du pain ? — Oui, j'ai du pain.	Oui, j'en ai.	Yes, I have some.
Je veux trois pommes.	J'en veux trois.	I want three of them.
Il parle de ses vacances.	Il en parle.	He talks about them.
Elle a besoin d'argent.	Elle en a besoin.	She needs some.

With a number or quantity, keep the number at the end: J'en ai trois (I have three of them), Il en boit beaucoup (He drinks a lot of it).

en goes before the verb like the others: Je vais en acheter (I'm going to buy some), Je n'en veux pas (I don't want any).

When two object pronouns appear before the same verb, French uses a fixed order. Learn the columns left to right.

1	2	3	4	5
me
te	le	lui	y	en
se	la	leur
nous	les
vous

Read it as: me/te/se/nous/vous → le/la/les → lui/leur → y → en.

Worked examples:

• Il me le donne. — He gives it to me. (me before le)
• Je lui en parle. — I speak to him about it. (lui before en)
• Tu m'en donnes. — You give me some. (me → m' before en)
• Elle les y emmène. — She takes them there. (les before y)

y and en always come last, and if both appear it is y en (heard in il y en a = there is/are some).

Two more Higher-tier pieces round out your pronoun toolkit.

Emphatic (stressed) pronouns — moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles — are used after prepositions and for emphasis. This is how you refer to people after à, avec, chez, pour, de:

• Je pense à elle. — I think about her.
• Je pars en vacances avec eux. — I'm going on holiday with them.
• On va chez elles. — We're going to their place.

Relative où means "where" or "when", linking to a place or a time:

• la ville où j'habite — the town where I live
• le jour où je suis arrivé — the day (when) I arrived

To say "nobody" or "nothing" as the subject, French uses personne ne and rien ne: Personne ne vient (Nobody is coming); Rien ne change (Nothing changes).

Some of the most common French phrases contain y or en baked in. You already use one of them daily — il y a. Learn these as set expressions and you will both understand them in listening and reading, and sound more natural in speaking.

Expression	English	Contains
il y a	there is / there are	y
on y va	let's go / we're off	y
vas-y ! / allez-y !	go on! / go ahead!	y
j'en ai marre	I'm fed up (with it)	en
je m'en souviens	I remember it	en
il s'en va	he's leaving / going away	en

Worked examples:

• Il y a beaucoup de choses à faire. — There are lots of things to do.
• On y va ? — Oui, allons-y ! — Shall we go? — Yes, let's go!
• J'en ai marre des devoirs. — I'm fed up with homework.

In a positive command, y and en come after the verb with a hyphen: Vas-y ! (Go on!), Prends-en ! (Take some!). Note vas-y keeps the -s of va before y for sound.

1. Using y for people

y replaces à + a thing or place, not a person. "I'm talking to him" is Je lui parle; "I think about her" is Je pense à elle — never J'y.

2. Dropping en in English-style sentences

English says "I have three," but French must keep en: J'en ai trois. Leaving out en (j'ai trois on its own) is incomplete and loses accuracy marks.

3. Putting the pronoun after the verb

Object pronouns, including y and en, go before the verb: J'y vais, J'en veux. Writing Je vais y (as a full sentence) or Je veux en is wrong.

4. Getting the pronoun order wrong

The order is fixed: Il me le donne, not Il le me donne. And y/en come last: Je lui en parle, not Je en lui parle.

5. Using subject pronouns after prepositions

After a preposition, use the emphatic pronoun: avec moi, pour eux, chez elle — never avec je or pour ils.